Thursday, June 03, 2010

A graduate engineer walked into the library...

In a special library at a mining company where I worked we had a yearly batch of graduates from all spectrums of the industry and it was really wonderful to watch them go through their programme and experience the interesting angles at which they would approach their work.

Some would have new approaches to old problems, like the one when presented with the problem (a favorite one to give the graduates every year) of 'wood picking' from the ore, went off to the hospital and asked to use some of their equipment to work out his solution.

(This problem, briefly explained, is the pulling of old wood, from disused underground works, out of the ore mined from the pit. The extra carbon from the wood interfered with the process of extracting the gold.)His solution didn't work, but he married one of the nurses from the hospital.

Some of these graduates were very young, older hands would enjoy sending them off to the store for a 'long weight' or some striped paint. The storemen would just send them to a chair in the office, and get back to work, which, after a while so did the graduate.

I have met a graduate that insisted that there must be a 'standard' for everything, if only he could find the number to order it. I met a graduate that showed me an erupting volcaneo online,one that was interested in extraterrestrial geology, and one that built a boat. Working in this library I purchased items on all manner of subjects and ordered papers from many interesting conferences for seemingly obscure subjects, and enjoyed all of it. They were an interesting, vibrant and stimulating group.

Where I am working now is at the other end of the education cycle. We recently had a graduation and more graduates went out into the industry, where I hope they meet the old hands and have a company library to ransack and a Librarian to torment. I hope she/he gives them the one paper ever written on 'Wood Picking', and they finish their graduate programs with ease.

Some of them come into the library, with their families. Telling them tales of nights spent searching for information for their 4th year projects or other important assessments. These students often stop to thank the library staff,and then go off to their new exciting careers in the industry.